SQL Server v.Next - Linux Installation Step by Step
An introduction to SQL Server for Red Hat Linux Administrators with a step by step installation.
Syntactic Sugar
Syntactic sugar doesn't necessarily help a platform, but makes it easier or more fun to work on.
Reading, Writing, and Creating SQL Server Extended Properties
There is a great gulf between wanting to document your database properly with extended properties and actually doing it. Extended Properties have many uses but they aren't easy to use. Phil Factor is on a mission to make it easier for ordinary mortals to use extended properties as intended, to aid the database development process.
Data Preservation
Today Steve Jones talks about the challenges of preserving data across long periods of time, decades perhaps.
Extended Events for Tracking Backup and Restore Progress
Microsoft has introduced new extended events in SQL server 2016 which will give us detailed information about restore and backup process.
Spills SQL Server Doesn’t Warn You About
Table variables get a lot of bad press, and they deserve it. They are to query performance what the TSA is to air travel. No one’s sure what they’re doing, but they’ve been taking forever to do it.
Provisioning
This week Steve Jones is asking about the timeframe for you to get a new SQL Server instance? Is it substantial? Do you really know? Answer this week.
Managing Packages Using Windows PowerShell
Windows hasn't had a package manager in the style of the Advanced Packaging Tool (APT) of Linux distributions. Apt-get is a great way of installing packages and other software. We have Chocolatey, of course which has a growing library of software and even allows you to automatically update software. Now PowerShell has an 'official' way of using any system, such as NuGet, Chocolatey, GitHub or PSget. It is definitely useful and likely to mature into an indispensable tool for Windows users. Nicolas explains wh.
The Future of Auditing
Auditing is a weak point in SQL Server according to Steve Jones. He looks at a few of its flaws.
Blogs
Automatic Index Compaction
By ReviewMyDB
Index maintenance has always meant nightly jobs and a window you have to defend....
The Goldilocks problem – Materialized Views
I’m sure you’ve all heard the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but...
Monday Monitor Tips: Virtual Machine Usage and Cost
By Steve Jones
One of the things I’ve been requesting for a number of years is cost...
Forums
SQL Art, Part 4: Happy 4th of July — A British DBA's Guide to Celebrating a War We Don't Talk About
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Art, Part 4: Happy...
How We Handled a Vendor Retry That Loaded Twice in Snowflake
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How We Handled a Vendor...
Cognitive Coverage
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Cognitive Coverage
Question of the Day
Getting the Average
I have this data in the dbo.Commission table in a SQL Server 2022 database.
salesperson commission Brian 12 Brian 16 Andy 7 Andy 14 Andy 21 Steve 20 Steve NULLAll the data is a varchar, and I decide to run this query to get the totals for each salesperson.
SELECT SalesPerson
, AVG(TRY_PARSE(Commission AS int)) AS TotalCommission
FROM commission
GROUP BY SalesPerson
GO
What average commission is calculated for Steve? See possible answers